With their legacy of service, Montana’s Williams family makes community their business.

April’s mild sun casts shadows across a blanket of evergreens on the steep hill outside Whitney Williams’ Missoula home. The bright reflection— golden-green forest and big blue sky—does better than lightbulbs could, as Whitney and her parents gather by daylight around her coffee table.

Whitney’s father, Pat Williams, points toward the hill. It’s part of the Rattlesnake Wilderness, which he earned federal protection for during his 18-year tenure on Capitol Hill.

“There’s not a rattlesnake in that land, that we know of,” he says, laughing. “It’s got a creek that runs through it [and] from the air it looks like a rattlesnake, curving back and forth.”

BY JACK REANEY